Mountains lie at the very heart of Chinese culture and art. A bridge between the human and transcendental realms, they have provided an enduring source of inspiration for poets, scholars, and artists and remain a potent theme within China’s landscape painting tradition.

The idea of retreating from society into a life of reclusion in the mountains has a long-standing history in China. The practice thrived in ancient China, in part because it found support in the philosophies of Confucianism, Daoism and later Buddhism. The motivation for reclusion could be spiritual or ethical. For Daoist adherents, the mountains offered the opportunity to encounter immortal beings and were therefore a path to transcendence. For some intellectuals, the politics of the court and the burdens of society or perhaps fame proved unbearable. Retreats built in mountain or streamside settings promised a peaceful and unfettered life in simple circumstances where they could indulge in scholarship and the practice of art. The ethos of reclusion so influenced the Chinese intellectual class that it left an imprint on almost every facet of artistic endeavor. In landscape painting, the theme of reclusion was expressed through diverse imagery, sometimes unprecedented and original, but often based on well-known prototypes and patterns. Among the patterns represented here are “retreat in solitude,” “reclusion in a fishing boat,” “reading in seclusion,” “visiting a recluse,” and “gazing at waterfall.”

Drawn from the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the works on display span 500 years of Chinese history, from the late Southern Song to the Qing dynasties (13th–early 20th centuries).